The Love Affair of Nathaniel P Themes & Motifs

Adelle Waldman

This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more -
everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Love Affair of Nathaniel P.

Self-Deception vs. Self-Awareness

Through the internal monologue of the main protagonist, Nate, the author shows how a basically good person can be simultaneously self-aware and self-deceiving. The primary way in which the author demonstrates Nate’s ability to be self-aware and self-deceiving at the same time is through a close analysis of his thought process. For example, when Nate notices Hannah as a candidate for his romantic attention, he immediately finds fault. In this case, he recognizes that “while she had a nice body” she also had a “loose-limbed quality of a comic actor, goofy and self-conscious, good-humored but perhaps also a bit asexual” (39). He ruminates on how if she had been more conventionally hot, he would probably have paid more attention prior to that night at the dinner party when she had been “the only woman present who was at all a viable candidate for his...